


Many Other Celestial Objects

by orphan_account



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Aged-Up Characters, M/M, Observatory AU, Swearing, astronomer!oikawa, chemistry major!iwaizumi, lil bit of angst, seijoh third years, slow burn??, volleyball mentions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-04
Updated: 2016-02-04
Packaged: 2018-05-18 05:28:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 12,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5900089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Okay, so maybe this week’s experience at the observatory won’t be so bad, he hated to admit it but he was actually pretty interested. But he knew that it would be run by some stuffy old professor who retired from the university with big glasses and a bushy beard. Just the thought of it made him shiver.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so maybe this week’s experience at the observatory won’t be so bad, he hated to admit it but he was actually pretty interested. But he knew that it would be run by some stuffy old professor who retired from the university with big glasses and a bushy beard. Just the thought of it made him shiver.

Iwaizumi had spent a good 3 years away at University, and decided to follow a career in science, chemistry to be exact. He’d returned to Miyagi with a degree under his belt, and was left at the gate into adulthood, jobs, taxes and stress.

“Hajime’s home!” Mrs Iwaizumi called once she spotted Iwaizumi walking in the front door.

Iwaizumi greeted her with open arms and a smile, “Hi, Mum, how have you been?”

“I’ve been good” she replied, “I’ve missed you though, it’s good to have you back”

Iwaizumi pulled away and put his suitcase to the side. He looked around the small hallway; it had been so long since he’d last been there it looked so much smaller than he remembered. Of course, he’d visited, but during his last year he found it harder and harder to get free time in order to go back home, what with exams being so close and important and all.

“Your old room is the same, I haven’t touched a thing” his Mum said, “go put your stuff upstairs and then come tell us all about your time”

Iwaizumi nodded, then grabbed his bags and dragged them up the stairs. His Mum was right; his room looked exactly the same as it did when he was last there. It was like a shrine, his parents never touched it, and nobody was allowed in there when he wasn’t home. Putting his stuff on the bed, he noticed a few of his old childhood toys and smiled to himself, remembering all those times he used to sit down and play make-believe with them.

When he went back downstairs, his parents were waiting for him in the kitchen, they were both eager to find out about how his last year was.

“How was it?” His Dad asked, shaking out the newspaper.

“It was... okay” Iwaizumi nodded, “well, it was alright I suppose, the course was good, and the exam was easy. I got the degree so...” he drifted off.

His Mum smiled, “Any idea where to next then?”

“In terms of jobs? No” Iwaizumi replied bluntly.

“Aren’t you interested in science?”

Iwaizumi was interested in science, but by the end of his time at university he’d gotten bored of it. Having to do the same subject for three years wasn’t exactly the best. “I suppose”

“Well” His Mum seemed oddly cheerful, yes her son had just come home, but there was something else in the atmosphere, “I’ve gotten you a chance to go check out one of the observatories here in Miyagi, I remember when you were little you were always interested in the planets and meteors and things”

“Oh, you didn’t have to”

She shook her head, “Nonsense. Go and have fun! Planets and space are part of chemistry you know, but that head of yours to work!”

“I’m not going to be working there. I’ll just go see it for an hour or so”

“Nope, I really hope you don’t mind, but there was a week long course available for one person at a time, I managed to get you in for next week. How does that sound?”

Iwaizumi rolled his eyes, “Why are you treating me like a 5 year old? I’m an adult; I don’t need you making my plans for me.”

“Hajime... Listen to your Mother” his Dad looked over the newspaper and frowned, “She’s actually got a good idea for this one. Just, go”

“Fine” Iwaizumi huffed, “Oh and by the way” he said walking out, “I’m going out tonight with Hanamaki and Matsukawa, so don’t expect me back before 11”

He left the room and his parents sighed, “It’s just like when he was a teenager”

Back in his room, Iwaizumi started to unpack his things. He didn’t take much with him, but most of his clothes went straight in the wash pile, and he started rummaging through his wardrobe in order to find things for his night out.

Whilst looking through a drawer, he pulled out a t-shirt which he didn’t even know he still owned. It was one he had when he was younger, around 7 or 8, and it was covered with spaceships and comets and shooting stars. His Mum was right, he was _obsessed_ with outer space when he was small, and it was all he ever talked about. But he’d grown out of that.

Okay, so maybe this week’s experience at the observatory won’t be so bad, he hated to admit it but he was actually pretty interested. But he knew that it would be run by some stuffy old professor who retired from the university with big glasses and a bushy beard. Just the thought of it made him shiver.

So, by the time he’d found clothes that didn’t smell, still fitted him, and were casual enough, Iwaizumi found himself with just an hour left before he was meant to be picked up, however, Matsukawa was usually late picking him up and he had no intention of thinking that times had changed.

He stood in front of the mirror and observed his reflection. He wore black skinny jeans, which were actually quite a struggle to get on, and a simple white shirt, which he wore under a red plaid shirt. It was probably Iwaizumi’s go-to look when he went out with his friends, plus they liked it when he wore white shirts because it made his muscles look their best!

“There’s our boy!” Hanamaki shouted out of the car window. Matsukawa beeped the horn as Iwaizumi closed the door to the house and jogged down the pathway.

“Ooo, he’s wearing white” Matsukawa added, “nice touch, looking to meet somebody are we?”

“Shut up and get us to the bar, I just finished a three year chemistry course which I hated and right now I need to get drunk, so just drive”

“Yes sir!” Matsukawa confirmed, slamming his foot on the accelerator and speeding off down the street.

When they arrived at the bar, it was packed full of people, and Iwaizumi recognised a few of them from his old high school, which was weird. They got out of the car and it dawned on Hanamaki that Matsukawa had brought his car, meaning if they were driving back he wouldn’t be able to drink.

“Nah, we’ll be drunk enough we won’t care about the walk back to Iwa’s house” He replied, “Sooo, any cute guys or gals at uni?” he smirked, giving a small wave to the doorman.

“Nope” Iwaizumi replied bluntly. Well maybe there was one person which he thought was quite cute, but turned out that they had a horrible personality, apart from that, Iwaizumi paid more attention to his coursework than potential dates.

Hanamaki nudged him, “I smell bullshit” he wafted his hand around.

“Alright, alright” Iwaizumi took a seat at the bar and ordered a drink, “there may have been a couple, but that was it, not that I was interested”

Matsukawa ordered his drink as well and looked around the bar, “You’ve never been that sociable have you? Is there anybody in here?”

“Can we not talk about who I may or may not want to talk to please?” Iwaizumi sipped at his drink, “just change the subject alright?”

Hanamaki held his hands up and grinned, “Somebody had a bad morning” he said, “you alright?”

Iwaizumi shook his head, “My Mum’s making me go to this week long thing at the observatory as she thinks I’m still into planets and stuff, it’s like I haven’t aged at all since going to university”

“That’s adorable” Matsukawa smirked, spinning around on his barstool, “what’s the problem, you just finished a three year course on chemistry, planets and space are chemistry dude”

“I know, I know” the other put his head in his hands, “there isn’t much of a problem, and I guess it sounds interesting, but I don’t want to spend a week with some old dude in a tweed jacket”

The other boys laughed and patted him on the back, “He might be cute” Matsukawa grinned.

They did what they always did, sit and chat and drink. It had been months since the last time they all hung out; there was a lot to catch up on. In the space of 5 months Hanamaki had been dumped by his 17th girlfriend on the year, and Matsukawa had been looking at apartments.  And since then, Matsukawa had bought one and Hanamaki had moved in with him as the first couldn’t afford it on his own.

“You missed the housewarming party dude” Matsukawa said.

“Yeah, it lasted about 3 hours before the cops showed up after a neighbour filed a noise complaint”

Iwaizumi laughed, it seemed all of the parties Matsukawa held ended up being broken apart from the police!

Matsukawa was wrong, they hadn’t gotten nearly drunk enough to not care about the walk home. They’d only had about 3 beers each, and none of them were lightweights, so their feet were killing them when they got back to Iwaizumi’s house.

“Wanna crash on the couch?” Iwaizumi asked, kicking his shoes off.

His friends nodded, before heading into the living room and plonking themselves on the couches. Iwaizumi just rolled his eyes and left the room, two days before he would be starting (could you even call it work?) at the observatory.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So he was right about one thing. The guy at the observatory did wear glasses and a jacket, with elbow patches, but he wasn’t old and he didn’t have a bushy beard. Instead, he was about Iwaizumi’s age, smooth-looking skin, light brown hair and smiled at him with a set of perfectly straight teeth. “Are you Iwaizumi Hajime?”

Iwaizumi hadn’t learnt how to drive yet, despite being able to for a good few years, and unfortunately, his parents weren’t up for the 45 mile drive up to the observatory at 9 in the morning with the rush hour traffic. So, he settled for a bus.

There weren’t many busses that went that far out of town, and he was lucky enough to catch one, even if that bus smelt like piss and had two screaming children on board.

The landscape just out of town was nice; it was a quite part of Miyagi, with fields stretching miles filled with various animals. He lent against the window and watched the world blur past, letting his mind be filled by thoughts about how much he was dreading this next week.

He was partly mad at his Mum, thinking why she would do that without asking first. It’d been years since he last mentioned space, what made her think he’d still be interested in it?

The road suddenly got bumpy, and when he looked around he realised that he was nowhere recognisable. They were probably getting close now, as the town was getting smaller and smaller in the distance and they were getting higher and higher as they climbed the hill.

The bus stopped, and Iwaizumi hopped off after thanking the driver. The journey was tiring, and he sighed as he realised he would have to make the same one in order to get back home.

He noticed the observatory over by the edge of the cliff, perched carefully overlooking the prefecture, but before heading over he walked to the edge and stared at the tiny houses and cars and people going about their day to day lives.

The observatory itself was nicely built, a small white building with glass doors and big door with a hatch, surrounded by lights which presumably were turned off at night. What was he even doing there in the day? There weren’t going to be any stars or planets visible during the day, right?

He walked slowly over to the building, bracing himself with whatever sight he would be greeted with when he opened the door. Actually, he was surprised when he walked in, met by a small room with a desk in it and a chair, nothing else.

The interior was white, and sitting at the desk was a woman, black hair and glasses, and a small beauty mark by her mouth. She looked up and smiled, “Ah, you must be here for the week, just head up the ladder over there and through the hatch.”

Iwaizumi nodded and headed over to the ladder, which was also white and started climbing. He pushed the hatch open and was taken by surprise when he looked into the room. It was nothing like the previous room, it looked like it was lived in, well looked after.

It was built into the dome, but it wasn’t like your usual scientific observatory, it was more homely, with wooden furniture scattered around, and a gold coloured telescope looking out a big circular window. There was a button on the wall, controlling the dome, and Iwaizumi felt like pressing it, but he was interrupted.

So he was right about one thing. The guy at the observatory did wear glasses and a jacket, with elbow patches, but he wasn’t old and he didn’t have a bushy beard. Instead, he was about Iwaizumi’s age, smooth-looking skin, light brown hair and smiled at him with a set of perfectly straight teeth. “Are you Iwaizumi Hajime?”

\---

Iwaizumi might have been staring, as the guy let out a small laugh and ran a hand gently through his hair, “I get that a lot” he said.

Now, Iwaizumi wanted to punch him, but also a little part of him wanted to continue staring and not dare mark that pretty face he had, “Sorry” he said instead, “I am, yes...”

“Great” the guy clapped his hands together, “I spoke to your Mum, although she made you seem like a 7 year old” he looked Iwaizumi up and down, “but this works as well” he grinned. He was gorgeous, Iwaizumi swore he’d never seen anything so... beautiful before.

Iwaizumi’s throat felt a little dry and he forced himself to cough before shifting around, “Right, yeah sorry about that... Uh, so what am I supposed to be doing?”

“Well, first things first, I’m Oikawa Tooru, secondly, you don’t really have to do anything, just hang out, watch the stars and stuff, I was going to teach you, but seems as you’re not a 7 year old, I’m at a loss”

Damn his Mum for doing this.

“So” Oikawa said, “How much do you know about the solar-system?”

“I used to like space and stuff when I was younger” Iwaizumi said, “But, I don’t really know much, I have to admit”

“Alright, wanna look at some planets?” Oikawa asked.

Iwaizumi smirked, “In the day? I don’t think so”

Oikawa laughed, “Oh you can see planets in the day, my friend, take a look through the telescope”

Iwaizumi felt his face reddening, “Uh, yeah I told you I didn’t know much” he tried to use that as a cover, but he used to be 100% sure you couldn’t see planets during the day time.

“It’s okay, you’re here to learn!” Oikawa smiled warmly, “Well, Venus is brighter than any other celestial object apart from the moon and sun, so that’s your best bet, it doesn’t make any visible light of its own but if you know where to look, you can see it”

Iwaizumi nodded, and walked over to the telescope by the window, and Oikawa followed him, “Take a look, try north a little”

Oikawa was right, whilst looking through the lens; Iwaizumi could see a small white circle, Venus. “Can you see it?”

“Yeah” Iwaizumi said, coming away from the telescope, “It’s actually pretty cool”

“Right?!” Oikawa clearly agreed, “What do you want to know next?”

“Actually, do you mind if I ask you some questions, about space of course?” Iwaizumi asked.

“Want to see if I know what I’m talking about? Hmm, sure, go ahead”

Iwaizumi thought of some questions he could ask Oikawa, he was actually quite interested in how much this guy had learnt about space and planets.

“How many earths can fit in the sun?”

“1.3 million”

“What is the name of the biggest star?”

“VY Canis Major” Oikawa said quickly, “I’ll show it to you sometime”

For some reason, Iwaizumi felt his face flush a little, something about Oikawa saying ‘sometime’ made him get his hopes up about meeting this guy another time, despite already knowing he’d see him for the rest of the week.

“How close do you have to be to the sun to burn up?”

“Approximately 93 million miles”

“What is the biggest constellation?”

“Hydra”

“And what can you tell me about it?”

Oikawa smiled, he was actually enjoying this. Not many people that came to see the observatory or see him were actually that bothered in the astronomy. They never really talked to him, or asked him about things, and he missed that. “It’s the largest out of the 88 recognised constellations, named after Hercules from Greek mythology. It stretches from the Northern hemisphere where it borders Cancer, then down to the Southern sky where it meets Centaurus”

“And the smallest?” Iwaizumi added, actually a little impressed by how much Oikawa knew.

“That would be the Crux, which is a small group of four stars that form a Latin cross in the Southern sky, it’s visible from latitudes south of 25 degrees north and completely invisible in latitudes of 35 degrees north, roughly north of Texas, United States”

Iwaizumi’s jaw actually dropped, and Oikawa laughed, “What? You asked”

“And I’m surprised you answered, if I’m honest. How much do you know?”

Oikawa shrugged, “What can I say? I used to be obsessed with these things as a kid, still am, actually” he said, “I think it’s incredible”

“It is pretty amazing, I guess”

“You guess?!” If Oikawa was drinking, Iwaizumi could imagine his drink coming out of his nose, “Space is full of incredible and amazing things, you know? There is so much we don’t know about and every day I am one step closer to understanding it!

“Sorry...”

“It’s okay” Oikawa spoke quieter, “it’s just you’re the first person to actually seem to take an interest in this, and I don’t know, I enjoyed telling you everything I knew”

“Then carry on”

“What?”

“Give me facts like a Wikipedia page” Iwaizumi said, and Oikawa blushed but then laughed.

“You know Wikipedia stinks of bullshit right?” he said, “But okay”

When Iwaizumi left the observatory that day, he came out knowing so many more things that he thought was possible to learn within the space of 5 hours, things like “The moons of Uranus are named after Shakespearian characters” and “Olympus Mons in Mars is the largest volcano in our solar system” and that was all thanks to the _old guy with the bushy beard in glasses and a tweed jacket._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments/kudos/bookmarks etc are always appreciated <3 Thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

“So how was it? Old guy?” Hanamaki asked, stretching out on the bed with a yawn.

Iwaizumi shook his head, “Surprisingly, no” he said, “he was actually our age, and was not what I was expecting”

Hanamaki raised an eyebrow, “Interesting...”

“What?”

Just then, Matsukawa opened the door with a couple of plastic bags, “Sorry I’m late, went to the store, what’s going on?”

Hanamaki filled Matsukawa in, then continued to talk to Iwaizumi, “What was he like? Was he cute?”

“Kinda, I guess” Iwaizumi’s cheeks were pinking, “he wasn’t bad to look at, actually quite attractive”

“From kinda cute to quite attractive... huh” Matsukawa nodded, “Have the hots for him?” he smirked.

Iwaizumi sighed and smacked Matsukawa round the head with a magazine, “I don’t even know him, but he knows a lot about space, it’s very interesting. I actually ended up having a good time, despite being so adamant I’d hate it”

“Yeah well the 45 mile trips gotta be fun” Hanamaki added.

“I guess, tomorrow I’ll head out earlier though, maybe get a different bus so I’d have more time there”

“To daydream about sexy elbow patch guy” Hanamaki put his hands on his heart and looked at the ceiling and batted his eyelids, all whilst Matsukawa burst into laughter.

“To learn more about _space_ ” Iwaizumi pointed out, “I don’t even know why I gave it up when I was younger”

“Probably because you didn’t have cute observatory dudes teaching you. So, this gonna be a student-teacher relationship or just wait until you’ve graduated?” Matsukawa laughed.

“Okay, get out!” Iwaizumi pointed towards the door.

“Hey, hey! I brought food!”

\---

The second day was like the first one, except Iwaizumi found himself looking over in Oikawa’s direction a lot more, always interested in what he was doing.

“Want to stay later today and I can point out some constellations?” Oikawa asked, looking up from the notebook he was studying.

Iwaizumi stared at him, and for some reason had difficulty getting his words out, “Wha- I, uh...”

“Was that a bit too forward? Sorry” Oikawa closed the book and turned to face Iwaizumi with his body. Iwaizumi watched the way he crossed his legs, his left coming up and carefully balanced on his right, foot twitching ever so slightly.

“It’s okay... Uh, are you sure?” Iwaizumi managed.

“If it’s okay with you, you need to learn right?”

“Right” Iwaizumi nodded, “then okay, sure”

Oikawa’s eyes lit up as he showed Iwaizumi his perfect smile again, “Great!” he said.

Oikawa was happy, happy that there was somebody he could share all of this with. When he told people he wanted to become an astronomer, they laughed, telling him it wasn’t a real thing and that it was for old people and that it was stupid and lame. Even so, he knew that it was what he wanted to do, and it didn’t matter if nobody liked the subject, he did, and that was what he based it on.

He had a passion for it, and liked the idea of not knowing what’s out there, some extraterrestrial being out there way more advanced than the human race could be on another planet, but nobody knows. Oikawa likes to think there is.

Oikawa passed a few pieces of paper over to Iwaizumi to look through, and pointed out the various planets, “Surely you know all the planets.”

“Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Earth... Pluto?”

Oikawa hummed, “Despite so many people saying Pluto isn’t a planet, I still consider it one, so yeah. You’ve got one more”

Iwaizumi scrunched his face up and tried to think of the remaining planet, which made Oikawa laugh, “I always forget at last one” Iwaizumi admitted.

“I’ll give you a minute to think of it, and if you don’t, you won’t get to use the telescope later on”

Iwaizumi raised his eyebrows, “You’re kidding right?”

Oikawa waved a hand, “Of course I am, I’m not that much of a strict teacher... It’s Mercury, by the way”

“Mercury!” Iwaizumi slapped a hand on his forehead, “Damn Mercury”

Oikawa opened up another book and started jotting some things down, “You know I expect you to remember them all by the end of the week right?”

“Hey! I have a really bad memory” Iwaizumi laughed.

Oikawa smiled, “I once memorised all 50 states of America within a week, 7 is nothing compared to that”

 _“All 50!?”_ Iwaizumi’s jaw dropped, “I’m impressed”

“Well, I didn’t have anything to do, so I did something to keep me occupied, it’s amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it you know” Oikawa pushed up his glasses, “So, you have until Friday”

“Alright. Friday”

A few moments of silence fell over the two, as Oikawa was reading a textbook and Iwaizumi was looking through the note pages about planets. It was a comfortable silence, which took both of them by surprise a little, having only known each other for two days and all.

Iwaizumi wanted to get to know Oikawa better, know his likes and dislikes, and for some reason didn’t want to finish on Friday.

“So what do you do in your spare time?” he asked, hoping it wasn’t too personal for a second encounter.

“I mostly read. Although I do like playing volleyball” Oikawa began, “I stopped after high school though, and never found a team to join”

“What a coincidence. I play volleyball too” Iwaizumi replied, “I’m on a local team”

“You are?!” Oikawa dropped his text book, “What position do you play?” he asked excitedly.

“Wing spiker. I’m actually the ace” Iwaizumi felt a little proud of that, a hint of pride showing in his voice.

“I’m a setter!” Oikawa cried, “This is really cool! Maybe we can play together, I really need to get back into practice”

Iwaizumi scratched the back of his neck, “Sure, I’m sure my team won’t mind if you come to our practice tomorrow afternoon, our setter is injured at the moment so you could step in”

“I’d love that!” Oikawa was sitting so far on the edge of his chair he was almost falling off, he looked so happy. “Thank-you!”

“It’s okay, really”

Oikawa smiled as he watched Iwaizumi return to his notes, carefully following each word with his finger and occasionally looking up and out the window to process it. Oikawa didn’t want the week to end either. “So does that mean we won’t be hanging up here tomorrow?”

“Nope. Practice starts at about 3, so we’d be done”

Oikawa nodded, happy he’d see Iwaizumi all day. He liked Iwaizumi, liked how although he admitted he wasn’t overly bothered in the whole subject of astronomy, he paid attention because he knew it meant something to Oikawa.

“So, what do you want to do in life?”

Iwaizumi shrugged, “When I was little I wanted to be an astronaut, but it’s not really my thing anymore”

“What did you major in?”

“Huh? How did you know I went to university?”

Oikawa laughed and pointed at Iwaizumi’s hoodie, which clearly stated the name of his university and his class year. He bushed, “Uh, chemistry”

“Ah, want to be a chemist?”

“It was just something I chose, just so I’d have a degree I guess”

Oikawa almost looked disappointed, “Don’t you have any ambitions? Dreams?”

Iwaizumi broke the eye contact and looked out the window, “Not really, why, do you?”

“I have loads” Oikawa replied, “My bucket list is _huge!”_

Iwaizumi raised an eyebrow, “Like?”

Where was he going to start? He was telling the truth, it would be impossible to name all of the things he wanted to do before it was too late. Oikawa really had put a lot of thought into his bucket list, making sure that they were all possible and he was being realistic, well, somewhat realistic.

“I want to go to space. See planets up close, you know?” Iwaizumi nodded and Oikawa continued, “I really want to get prints from the Hubble telescope, but they cost a lot. Oh, I want to witness the Milky Way from the South of the Equator, and maybe see a total solar eclipse whilst standing on the beach”

“You seem to really know what you want... I think the only thing I ever wrote down on something you could call a bucket list was ‘Go to Space’ which was written when I was a kid”

Oikawa laughed, “Not bad actually”

“Thanks..?” Iwaizumi wondered.

Suddenly, Oikawa’s phone vibrated, and he picked it up, “One sec, sorry” he said, unlocking the phone.

“Ah... damn it”

“Everything okay?” Iwaizumi looked up.

“I need to babysit my nephew tonight, meaning we can’t stay behind, how about tomorrow?” Oikawa suggested, “I know that means we’ll literally be together for the whole day but, we’ve only got this week right?”

Iwaizumi felt his face heat up, “Y-yeah”

“Alright, thanks, Iwa-chan... ah shit”

“Iwa- _chan_?”

Oikawa hid his face, “I’m sorry... I’m really sorry it just slipped out. I usually give nicknames to people and I guess for us it’s a little weird but, I hardly ever call people by their actual names”

Iwaizumi was pretty sure his face was on fire, “No, no it’s okay, it’s okay” he reassured, seeing relief in Oikawa’s eyes, “It’s kinda cute, actually”

“Heh, okay, great? Um, I gotta go, but I’ll see you tomorrow?”

Iwaizumi nodded, “Yeah, I’ll get going as well then”

“Before I forget, is it alright if I give you my number?”

Iwaizumi hesitated a bit, but then nodded again. Feeling a little unsure as nobody has ever given him their number before, and the fact that it was Oikawa’s number made it a whole lot different, a good different. Iwaizumi gave him his.

“You know, for observatory stuff” Oikawa shrugged.

“Of course” Iwaizumi replied, holding the door open for Oikawa to leave. 2 days down, 3 to go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments/kudos etc are always appreciated! Thanks for reading <3


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There was this guy, who came into the observatory on Monday and didn’t seem to want to be there at all, he didn’t know much and probably didn’t care. But two days later, only two days later he was back, actually telling Oikawa that he thought astronomy was pretty cool. And that was because of him.

Talking to Oikawa was like talking to his Mum and Dad, it was so easy, like they’d been friends for years but hadn’t seen each other in ages. It wasn’t awkward or uncomfortable, not even the first time they met, they just clicked. Fortunately, neither Oikawa or Iwaizumi minded that fact.

Iwaizumi liked Oikawa; there was no denying that, he just really, really liked him. Yes, two days isn’t a long time, but when you click with somebody, you just click, that’s all there is to it. He wanted to spend more time with him, and luckily, this day he is going to be with him all day.

Of course it wouldn’t just be them, they did have to go to Iwaizumi’s volleyball practice, but the rest was just the two of them.

 _Wait a minute... We’re going to watch the stars together tonight, is that a... is that a date?!_ Iwaizumi thought, sitting down at the kitchen table with a coffee in his hand. He’d never really thought about it, and when Oikawa said they’d stay behind and he’d show him constellations he never thought about it as anything more than just Oikawa teaching and Iwaizumi learning.

But as he sat there and he thought more and more about it, it did seem pretty date like. They had the time of the day, the stars, and fact they’re going to be alone by an observatory in silence just looking at constellations. _Yeah, this is a date..._

Although Oikawa might not realise it, or maybe he did, who knows, Iwaizumi definitely did, and that changes everything. They were going on a date, which he didn’t even know about until just now. How was he even supposed to act? Like they’d been the past two days, casual or comfortable? Or if this was what Oikawa wanted then shouldn’t he act more like somebody’s date?

Oikawa never really hinted at it being a date, but maybe he was scared or something that Iwaizumi would be freaked out, and actually, he _is_ a little confused.

This is the thing, though; Oikawa knew exactly what he was doing. It was a date.

Thing with Oikawa is that he knows he’s hot, and although he doesn’t act big-headed about it (most of the time) he knows what he’s doing and how he can use it to his advantage. He’s good at reading people too, he’s very observant, so when Iwaizumi said yes and got all stuttery about it, he figured there was a good chance of Iwaizumi liking him back, but of course he’d never voice that opinion without being 100% sure.

There was less traffic on the roads when Iwaizumi set out to the observatory, so he made it there in good time.

“Hi!” Oikawa said, spinning on his chair and Iwaizumi opened the hatch, “I’ve got my volleyball stuff for later!”

Iwaizumi smiled and held up a gym bag, “Same” he said, “What’re we doing today?”

“I may have decided to be a little mean, but I’m going to see if you’ve been doing your homework?”

“You’ve set homework?” Iwaizumi raised an eyebrow.

“Not really, it’s just the planet thing; I want you to tell me all of the planets”

Iwaizumi smiled. For once in his life, he’d actually done something before it was due. Sure, at university he always met his deadlines, but he’d never _ever_ completed something before it had to be done, he just wasn’t like that. For some reason, this was an exception, he wanted to learn the planets, the size order and everything, to impress Oikawa and make him happy.

Without hesitation, Iwaizumi began talking, “Mercury, Mars, Venus, Earth, Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter”

Oikawa’s eyes lit up, “You did it! And in size order, I’m impressed”

“I’ve done my homework”

“Indeed you have” Oikawa replied, “Alright, so do you know any moons?”

Iwaizumi tilted his head, “Aside from ours? Nope”

Oikawa shook his head, “Alright, good start. Sit, I’ll tell you about them”

Iwaizumi sat down and leant forward, actually pretty interested in all the different moons.

“Firstly, Venus and Mercury don’t have moons, but the rest do. So you already know our moon, which is called Luna” he said, “Mars’ moons are called Deimos and Phobos. There are 67 moons of Jupiter, and I’m not going to name them all because that’d just take too long, but Ganymede, Callisto, Io and Europa, which are known as the Galilean moons are visible with binoculars and any telescope”

“That’s a lot of moons” Iwaizumi laughed.

“Saturn has 62!” Oikawa said, “The biggest six are all visible using a decent-sized telescope, which are Titan, Rhea, Iapetus, Dione, Tethys and Enceladus. Titan is even visible with binoculars.”

“How do you know all of this?” Iwaizumi asked, “Are you reading out of a text book or something?”

“Nope. I’ve just learnt it all, I taught myself about this kind of stuff. It’s actually pretty neat”

“So you know all of Jupiter’s 67 moons?”

“I could probably name them all if I thought about it, but like I said it’d take too long. I’ve heard of all of them and researched them, though”

Iwaizumi’s eyes widened, “I honestly don’t know how you did that, but I admire your dedication”

“Why thank-you. Now, back to work” Oikawa replied, “Uranus has only 27 moons”

“And here I was thinking it was just one giant moon” Iwaizumi smirked.

Oikawa was desperately trying not to laugh, but he shot Iwaizumi a look and cleared his throat, “No disrupting the class” he said, “Anyway, the only moon that can be seen with a telescope is Titania, which is the biggest, and then it goes Oberon, Umbriel and Ariel and so on right down to...” he paused to think, “Trinculo”

“You made that up”

“No way” Oikawa picked up a book and flicked through the pages for a bit, then handed it to Iwaizumi whilst tapping a picture, “See? Trinculo”

“Alright” Iwaizumi said, “What other moons are there?”

“Neptune has 14, the biggest is Triton. Then there are the ‘Dwarfs’”

“Dwarfs?”

Oikawa nodded, “Yeah, they’re celestial bodies resembling a small planet but lacking certain technical criteria that are required to be classified as such”

“Ah” Iwaizumi said, “Those Dwarfs... Alright, so what are those moons?”

“Dwarf Pluto has 5, and the biggest is Charon. Dwarf Orcus only has 1, which is Vanth. Dwarf Haumea has 2, which are Hi’iaka and Namaka, umm... Weywot is the only moon for Dwarf Quaoar” Oikawa was twiddling his pen in as he searched his mind, “Ah, Dwarf Iris only has 1 too, which is Dysnomia, and then Dwarfs Sedna, Makemake, 2007 OR10 and Ceres don’t have any.” he continued, “There are 182 moons of all the planets in our solar system, but new planets are being discovered every year”

“That’s... incredible”

“I know! It’s fascinating!” Oikawa agreed, “I’m really sorry if I’m filling your head with all this stuff, it can get a little boring, but in my case it’s never boring!”

“I don’t think it’s boring... I’m actually quite happy I’m here, I regret not taking more of an interest in astronomy”

Oikawa smiled, a warm spark in his eyes, “So you like planets and stuff again?!”

“Not as much as when I was a kid, but yeah, it’s pretty cool”

“Great. I’m glad” Oikawa said. Inside though, he wanted to scream. There was this guy, who came into the observatory on Monday and didn’t seem to want to be there at all, he didn’t know much and probably didn’t care. But two days later, only two days later he was back, actually telling Oikawa that he thought astronomy was pretty cool. And that was because of Oikawa.

They talked about the different moons and the different planets for so long they weren’t paying much attention to the time.

“Damn it! We gotta go if we want to make it in time to practice!”

Oikawa looked at the time and inwardly swore, gathered his things and locked up the observatory. Part 2 of his day with Iwaizumi was about to begin.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos/comments/bookmarks etc are always appreciated! Thanks for reading <3


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Now I can see why you like him so much, I mean check out that ass!”

Whilst walking to the gym Iwaizumi and his team practiced at, Oikawa was happy to be in Iwaizumi’s company outside of the observatory, and tried not to dwell on the fact they’d be returning there later on that same day. But, it was for a good cause, after all.

“Here we are” Iwaizumi said, pointing up at a large building with glass doors, “we use one of their sports halls”

“Great!” Oikawa replied, hoisting his bag back on his shoulder.

As per usual, his team were there before Iwaizumi arrived. He was never late, it’s just they were always early.

“There he is!” Hanamaki shouted, “Ooo, he brought a _friend”_

Matsukawa looked over to the door, where Iwaizumi and Oikawa were setting down their bags and taking off their jackets, “Think that’s the guy from the observatory?”

“Of course it is” Hanamaki slapped his friend on the back of the head, “He told us yesterday he was inviting him”

“Ohhh, damn though, look at him!”

“I know. I’m almost jealous that he looks like that”

“Hey!” Iwaizumi said as he walked over to his friends, Oikawa in tow, “This is Oikawa”

Oikawa smiled and held out his hand, “Hi!”

Matsukawa raised an eyebrow as he shook his hand, “Ah so you’re ‘Observatory Guy’”

“’Observatory Guy?’” Oikawa looked at Iwaizumi.

“Matsukawa’s an idiot” Iwaizumi simply replied, and Oikawa nodded with a knowing look on his face, “So is Hanamaki” Iwaizumi added on.

“Hey!” Hanamaki tried to argue, but Matsukawa put a hand on his shoulder and looked at him, and shook his head sympathetically, but mostly sarcastically.

“Uhm, nice to meet you. I’m going to just change, is there somewhere I can go?”

“Sure, changing rooms are the other side of the building-”

“Or you can just change here!” Hanamaki shouted, “We don’t mind” he batted his eyelids and Iwaizumi pushed him.

Oikawa blushed and tried to smile, “Right... I’ll just go change in the corner then”

“Okay” Iwaizumi replied, watching Oikawa go back to his gym bag before glaring at Matsukawa and Hanamaki.

“Nice choice” Matsukawa said, giving Iwaizumi a thumbs up.

Iwaizumi rolled his eyes, “Would you cut it out?”

“Why?” Hanamaki piped up, “You’re cute, he’s cute... you’re practically meant for each other”

“We’ve also only known each other for 3 days. So we’re _practically_ strangers”

“I’d go for more of a ‘Friendly Acquaintance’” Matsukawa says.

“Now I can see why you like him so much, I mean check out that ass!” Hanamaki says, pointing in Oikawa’s direction as he just wears a pair of nicely fitting shorts.

Iwaizumi sees Matsukawa’s facial expression change from shocked to impressed before he considers turning around. When he does, he finds himself inhaling too sharply and then choking. A stream of coughs coming from his throat getting everybody’s attention, and making Hanamaki and Matsukawa burst out laughing.

Matsukawa slapped Iwaizumi on the back, “Isn’t he so cute?” he asked Hanamaki who just grinned.

“Iwa-chan!” Oikawa shouts from across the room, “Are you okay?”

“ _Iwa-chan?”_ Hanamaki and Matsukawa exchange a look, then look at Oikawa, then at Iwaizumi, and continue laughing. “Man” Hanamaki wipes a tear away, “You even have nicknames for each other”

“So what’s his?” Matsukawa asked.

Iwaizumi thought about it, and muttered under his breath so his friends wouldn’t hear, “Pretty-kawa.” Unfortunately, they did.

“PRETTY-KAWA!” Hanamaki squawked, before Iwaizumi slammed a hand over his mouth and death-stared him.

“I said... Trashy-kawa”

“That’s mean” Oikawa said, coming up behind Iwaizumi, now ready to play, “Do you think I’m trash?”

“Uh-oh” Matsukawa began.

“Busted” Hanamaki finished, before dragging Matsukawa away to the side to get changed.

“Well?” Oikawa said, putting his hands on his hips. Why was he so bothered about this? He barely knew Iwaizumi but he felt really upset about it.

“No! Of course I don’t. They were just being stupid, it was a misunderstanding”

Oikawa was a little relieved. He trusted Iwaizumi in saying it was just a misunderstanding, a mistake, but there was a little niggle in the back of his mind. “Okay” he replied. He couldn’t help but wonder why he said that though, was there any need? He had heard Hanamaki say something before he walked over, he actually sounded like a strangled cat, but he couldn’t figure out what he said as Iwaizumi shut him up. Maybe it was none of his business, maybe it was just a joke and he’d probably forget about it anyway.

Oikawa smiled, “Good. I mean, I’m not trash! I’m fabulous”

Oikawa gave Iwaizumi that look again, the same one he did when they first met and Oikawa acted smug about the fact he caught Iwaizumi staring. Iwaizumi hated that look, but it was only the second time he’d seen it, and hoped it wasn’t going to be a regular thing.

He got the impression Oikawa was too into his looks. And was almost convinced when he saw the guy pull out a pocket mirror from his shorts and started checking his hair and pulling stupid poses to laugh at in the reflection. Like those with a stupid peach sign and his tongue stuck out. Now that was irritating for Iwaizumi.

“Alright!” The team captain called, “Enough chit-chat. Come on, get practicing. We’ve got a replacement setter today”

Oikawa smiled and waved slightly at everyone, who glanced at Iwaizumi with smirks on their faces as he shuffled around awkwardly.

Iwaizumi was busy getting changed when Hanamaki and Matsukawa cornered Oikawa.

“So what do you want with our Iwa?” Matsukawa started.

“E-excuse me?”

“We know he’s loveable and stuff” Hanamaki said, “But he’s our friend, you know?”

Oikawa nodded, “Yeah...” he said, before looking past the two boys. His jaw dropped and he let out a small breath of air, “Oh... my. God”

Hanamaki and Matsukawa turned around and saw what Oikawa was gaping at and just laughed, “Yeah, if you come to more of our practices, expect to see that a lot” Matsukawa smirked.

The two boys left him after that, left him staring across the gym at Iwaizumi’s bare arms, being shown off nicely as he wore a white muscle tank.

Oikawa got his bearings and walked over to Iwaizumi, “I can tell you work out”

Iwaizumi went red, “I uh... well, yeah...”

The whistle was blown, and the guys gathered round. Before splitting into two teams of 4 and practicing. Oikawa insisted on being on Iwaizumi’s team with Hanamaki and Matsukawa, to which the latter just snickered and smirked at Iwaizumi. Oikawa said he wanted to toss to an ace, that and see how good Iwaizumi was.

He was pleasantly surprised; actually, Iwaizumi was better than he thought he would be. He didn’t miss a spike, always broke through the block and scored a point for their team.

Matsukawa and Hanamaki were as good as useless. They were good players, and Oikawa recognised that, but they spent half the time pissing about, earning them glares and lectures from the captain.

In the end, Iwaizumi’s team won, and the captain of the team went over and told Oikawa how well he thought he played, “You’re not on a local team are you?”

“I’m not, no”

“How would you like to join ours? We already have a setter but he’s kind of prone to injury. You’re pretty good”

Oikawa smiled, “Thanks, but I don’t know if that’s something I’d be able to keep up with. I love volleyball and all, but I’ve got other commitments”

The captain nodded, “I understand, well, think about it and let me know”

Oikawa watched him walk away, and then Matsukawa and Hanamaki and Iwaizumi came over.

“You’re amazing!” Hanamaki said.

“Yeah, and Iwaizumi was better than ever as well” Matsukawa added, “dude something’s changed around you”

Iwaizumi looked at him, “I’m the same as I’ve always been” he said bluntly.

“Nah, it’s probably because I’m such an amazing setter!” Oikawa leaned into Iwaizumi’s line of sight and smiled at him. There it was; that smug look. He probably didn’t mean it, and Iwaizumi knew that, but he couldn’t help but let it get to him.

What he didn’t know, is that he was about to see Oikawa in a new light, one he would appreciate more than any other light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments/kudos/bookmarks etc are always appreciated! Thanks for reading <3


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The spotlights around the observatory were turned off, and they were surrounded by darkness, but as their eyes adjusted a faint glow came from a nearby streetlamp, which lit up Oikawa’s face with a nice warm shade of white. Iwaizumi couldn’t help but stare.

The walk back up to the observatory was tiring, as it was uphill, but they coped. Having each other to talk to as a distraction was nice, and they soon forgot about the ache in their legs.

When they reached the small white building _,_ Oikawa unlocked the door and they just put their belongings inside, before grabbing their coats and finding somewhere to sit to wait for the stars to come out.

The sun set whilst they were walking back and the pink and orange hues of the sky did nothing to convince Iwaizumi this wasn’t a date. It was almost perfect, so romantic but neither of them would admit that it was basically a date.

“There is a place we can sit just round here” Oikawa said, pointing towards the back of the observatory.

Iwaizumi followed him around and took a seat on the grass, which was starting to get damp from the dew.

“It’s great to watch the sunset from here, you know.” Oikawa said, getting out a flask of tea, he handed a cup to Iwaizumi, “It’s a shame we missed it.”

“I’m sure they’ll be others we can see” Iwaizumi said, watching Oikawa carefully fill his cup with tea.

They sat in comfortable silence for a while, just sipping at their drinks, and Oikawa suddenly piped up, “Do you see that?!”

Iwaizumi looked up at the sky, “See what?”

Oikawa pointed into the air, leaning closer to Iwaizumi so he could direct his line of sight to where he was looking, “That, see it?”

“Uhh, no?”

Oikawa laughed, “Okay, so what do you see?”

“I see a big cluster of stars” Iwaizumi replied.

“So you _do_ see it!” Oikawa said, “Liar”

“Wha- alright, what is it?”

“It’s just a star cluster. It’s a group of stars which share a common origin and are gravitationally bound for some length of time”

“Oh, wow”

“I know” Oikawa agreed, looking up at the stars, “Don’t you just think that’s this is all just so beautiful?”

Iwaizumi looked back up at the sky, now completely covered with stars, brightly twinkling in the darkness. “Is that the Hydra?” he asked, trying to impress Oikawa.

Oikawa tried to suppress a laugh, “Ah, no... Good try though!” he smiled, “That’s actually Orion.” he said, “See those three stars in a row? They point the way to Taurus”

“Ah” Iwaizumi said, “thanks...”

Iwaizumi raised a finger, pointing at a really bright star just above them, “What’s that?”

Oikawa looked up and pressed his face against Iwaizumi’s arm to try and line up his finger and his line of sight, “That’s Sirius A” he answered, “The brightest star”

Iwaizumi felt the heat from Oikawa’s body pass through his arm, and when he breathed out against his jacket, although he couldn’t feel it, there was a strange tingle. When he pulled away and sat up, Iwaizumi actually missed the warmth.

“Are you working on anything at the moment?” Iwaizumi asked, “Like, just projects and stuff”

“Not particularly, although I want to prove that aliens exist” Oikawa replied.

Iwaizumi’s eyes widened, and he tried to be kind as Oikawa seemed serious, “You uh... you believe in aliens?”

Oikawa’s head snapped around to look at him, “You _don’t?”_

“I used to, when I was a kid. But not anymore, they’re myths”

Oikawa looked back up at the sky and smiled, “Are you seriously telling me you can sit there and look up at the stars without being even a little bit curious that there is something more out there?”

Iwaizumi shrugged.

“There are things out there that are so incredible, things like Nebulas and Galaxies and the Milky Way. Other things that are so incomprehensible but they are out there, I know they are.” He looked at Iwaizumi, a smile across his face, then back up at the sky.

Iwaizumi was positively certain he’s never seen anything more beautiful than what he was looking straight at. Oikawa was there, staring up at the stars in wonder, amazement, with wide eyes and his lips parted, like he wanted to say something but was speechless. 

The spotlights around the observatory were turned off, and they were surrounded by darkness, but as their eyes adjusted a faint glow came from a nearby streetlamp, which lit up Oikawa’s face with a nice warm shade of white. Iwaizumi couldn’t help but stare.

“I’m certain that there are things out there more extraordinary than the human race, way more advanced... doesn’t that thought just send tingles up your spine?” He glanced back at Iwaizumi, but something made his gaze stay still.

Iwaizumi was staring at Oikawa, and Oikawa was staring back. It was completely silent; they were too far away from the town to hear any of the cars. The only noise was from the gentle breeze.

Oikawa swallowed, and he considered moving his hand, it was only a few inches away from Iwaizumi’s. Would it be okay to hold his hand?

Iwaizumi broke the eye contact first, by looking down, then he cleared his throat and looked back at the sky, “I mean, there is a possibility, but it’s not something I believe in”

Oikawa looked a little disappointed, and Iwaizumi tried not to let that get to him, “R-right...”

“So, what other constellations are out right now?”

“They all are, you know, just you can only see a certain number of them where we are, and it depends on the time of year as well” Oikawa’s voice lacked the slight sing-song tone it usually had, and Iwaizumi actually missed it.

“Oh right... Okay so which ones are we looking at?”

Oikawa pointed to a few stars in the sky, not really being so accurate, but Iwaizumi didn’t say anything as he sensed some awkwardness in the air, “That’s Orion again, uh that’s Carina, and those two over there are Octans and Cygnus”

“Awesome... Uh, are you okay?”

“I’m fine” Oikawa replied, “do you want more tea?”

Iwaizumi shook his head, “No, thanks...” _don’t let it be silent. Say something! Say something!_ “So uh, what can you tell me about Galaxies?”

“I was going to leave Galaxies until tomorrow, but I guess we can cover Nebula’s and Herschel Objects tomorrow, and then finish on Friday with Messier Objects.”

“Sounds good”

“Uh, so Galaxies are millions or even billions of stars held together by a gravitational force, kind of like star clusters but on a much larger scale. They can range in size from Dwarfs with just a few thousand stars to giants with one hundred trillion stars each orbiting their galaxy’s own centre of mass.” Oikawa said, “Many galaxies are thought to have black holes at their active centres and the Milky Way’s central black hole, known as Sagittarius A has a mass four million times greater than the sun”

“Wow” Iwaizumi exhaled, “That’s big”

“Yup!” Oikawa said, popping the word at the ‘P’ “Uhm... EGSY8p7 is the oldest and most distant Galaxy with a light travel distance of 13.2 billion light years away from Earth.”

“And, uh, how many regular years is 1 light year?”

“It’s not compared to our years, funnily enough. It’s actually quite confusing though, so I’m not going to try and explain it, sorry”

“It’s fine, don’t worry... So, Galaxies!”

“Yeah” There was still a weird tension in the air, like what happened earlier was having a negative effect on their evening. It shouldn’t have, it was a small thing, but then again it’s usually the smaller things which have the biggest impact. “Approximately 170 billion to 200 billion Galaxies exist in the observable universe”

“That’s crazy!” Iwaizumi said.

“You can believe that but not that aliens exist?”

“W-were you lying to me just now?”

“No, there are actually 170-200 billion Galaxies, but I’m just saying... That is a _huge_ number and you’re okay with that, but not aliens? You can’t really think we’re alone right?”

“Well I just-”

“There is no way that out of all the planets and Galaxies and Nebula’s we are the only life force, on a tiny planet called Earth, I refuse to believe that”

Iwaizumi didn’t say anything; he was bound to be interrupted again. He seemed to have set something off. He liked how passionate Oikawa was about this, and was actually quite envious. He’d never been that passionate about anything before. Never.

“Do you want to be an Astronomer?” Iwaizumi asked, “I bet you’d be a good one, you know a lot”

“I’m not sure” Oikawa shrugged, “I think that maybe I could be; it’s more of a hobby. I’ve never considered doing anything like that”

“You know, I think you’d be good as like a college professor, teaching astronomy”

“Are you saying you can see me in the place of an old guy with a beard?”

Iwaizumi laughed, “I have to admit, I did think that’s who I would be faced with when I first came here”

“And..?”

“...I was... pleasantly surprised”

Oikawa smiled, “You know, I was actually happy you weren’t a kid, either. I prefer this, a _lot_ more.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments/kudos/bookmarks etc are always appreciated! Thanks for reading <3


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “A Nebula. It’s Latin for cloud, and is an interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen, helium and other ionised gases. Originally, Nebula was a name for any diffuse astronomical object, including Galaxies beyond the Milky Way.”

“Ready for your crash course in Messier Objects?” Oikawa asked. He was wearing grey trousers and a navy blazer with brown elbow patches. As usual, his glasses were on the end of his nose, and he actually looked like a college professor. Iwaizumi smiled.

“Sure, but I thought we’d discuss Nebula’s first”

“Alright, they’re not particularly interesting, although pictures of them are incredible because of the colours, but it’s basically just a cloud of dust, hydrogen, helium and other ionised gases. You can do some research if you want, impress me tomorrow, it being your last day and all”

That’s right. It was Thursday, meaning he only had two more days at the observatory. Iwaizumi felt a small feeling of sadness.

“Yeah, I’ll look into it” he replied, “so, what are Messier Objects exactly?”

“They’re essentially a group of 110 astronomical objects which were documented by the French astronomer Charles Messier”

“What kind of astronomical objects?” Iwaizumi leaned further on his chair. He was genuinely interested.

“Uhm, there are 39 Galaxies, 26 Open Clusters, 29 Globular Clusters, 11 Nebulae and 1 Supernove Remnant”

“You know that adds up to 106 right? Not 110”

Oikawa raised an eyebrow, “Aren’t we a genius in maths. But yes, I’m aware, it’s because not all of the things come under that category. There are stars and such as well”

“And what are Herschel Objects?”

“That’s for tomorrow” Oikawa pointed out.

“I know, but it’s a quick topic, and I was thinking maybe we could do something different tomorrow, still do observatory stuff, but not here”

“Like what?”

“Like go to the museum, look at things that people have actually got, I think that’d be quite interesting”

“Alright, sounds good. So... Herschel Objects are objects documented by William Herschel. There are 400 of them, including 231 Galaxies, 100 Star Clusters, 34 Globular Clusters and 30 Nebulae. So, what did that add up to?”

“400 is an impressive number, unfortunately I only counted 395”

“That’s because-”

“Some of them aren’t under that category, right?”

Oikawa nodded, “Right”

\---

The final day came round way too quickly for both of them. Iwaizumi went from hating it to loving it and then it would be cut short just like that. But, they were going out to the museum, which would be a lot more interesting, Iwaizumi thought.

He met Oikawa there, to save both of them from the tiring journey up the hill.

“Hi!” Oikawa said. He looked cute. He looked less ‘Observatory Guy’ and more Oikawa. He was wearing jeans and a plain t-shirt with a loose gray cardigan over the top.

Iwaizumi smiled, “Morning” he said, opening the door for Oikawa to walk in.

“Oh, so gentlemanly” Oikawa laughed. Iwaizumi just rolled his eyes.

The museum wasn’t very busy, and there was a nice peaceful ambience around the rooms. Again, it seemed like a date, but a less romantic one, although Iwaizumi was pretty sure this for a date would be 100% fine with Oikawa.

Iwaizumi wanted to hold Oikawa’s hand, just grip it tightly as they walked around the museum, but he decided against it, last thing he wanted was to make it awkward.

“Wow!” Oikawa gasped, grabbing Iwaizumi’s arm and dragging him over to a display case.

There, behind the glass were pieces of meteorite, all lined up in a row from smallest to biggest.

“You’ve never seen a meteorite before?” Iwaizumi asked.

“Of course I have, but the last time I was here they didn’t have this many! Look how cool they are!” Oikawa had his hands pressed against the glass, like he was trying to get at the pieces of rock.

“Uh, Oikawa I don’t think you’re supposed to touch the display case”

Oikawa pulled away and pouted, before looking somewhere and wandering off in another direction, Iwaizumi helplessly following behind.

It was cool, to look at all the different space things in the museum, Iwaizumi learnt a lot, and it was cute to see how excited Oikawa got when he saw something new.

Like he’d be taught, there were all the Galaxies and the moons of each of the planets.

“I want to take a selfie for my Snapchat and maybe Instagram, that okay?” Oikawa asked, getting his phone out of his pocket.

“Uhm, sure” Iwaizumi agreed.

They stood in front of an information board, the background showing millions of stars, and Oikawa held out the phone in front of them. Then he snapped a photo.

Iwaizumi wasn’t that photogenic, but one wouldn’t hurt, so he did his best to look happy. Oikawa, like in every other photo he’s in, smiled widely and did a peace sign. Iwaizumi thought he looked pretty cute.

Oikawa showed the photo to Iwaizumi before posting it to various social media websites, all the captions containing a small alien emoji.

“This is so much fun!” Oikawa said, eyes twinkling as he brought a tray of food over to their table in the small cafe on the West side of the museum, “Thanks so much for suggesting it”

“It’s no problem; I thought it’d be nice to get out of the observatory for our last day. So what kind of people do you usually get anyway?” Iwaizumi replied, taking a bite out of his sandwich.

“Not ones like you, that’s for sure” Oikawa smiled, “Mostly kids, that and old guys wanting to go on treks to see different constellations and just talk to me for like an hour to see what advice I can give them. I don’t like those ones”

“Man, that sounds... Wait what did you mean not like me?” Iwaizumi’s neck was getting hot.

“I mean, you know... I get so many people who are... well you’re-” Oikawa blushed, “What I mean to say is you’re different because you’re fun, interesting and I like hanging out with you” he said, “and you actually seem to like astronomy”

“Ooh... thanks”

Aside from the casual but obvious flirting, they weren’t in any way a couple. Sure, both of them wanted to be, which the other didn’t know about. There was always room for that though, they got on ridiculously well and had the same interests, not to mention, Matsukawa had previously said they’re both hot, they’d be the best looking couple in Miyagi. Hanamaki changed it to Japan afterwards.

They were standing outside the museum doors, their final day together had come to an end.

“I’ve had an incredible day, and I’ve said this before, but thank-you” Oikawa said, nervously fiddling with the handles on his plastic bag.

“Today has been amazing, and thanks to you as well” Iwaizumi replied, “And thank-you for this week. I’ve learnt so much and I’m so happy that I listened to my Mum”

“You wouldn’t have gotten to meet me otherwise” Oikawa laughed, “But in all seriousness, I’d like to say thank-you to you for this week. It’s been amazing and... you’re the best student I’ve had”

Iwaizumi felt his face heat up, “Well, you’re the best teacher” he replied.

Oikawa smiled and quickly glanced at his watch, “Uhm, I better get going” he said, “Will I see you again?”

“I’m not sure. I hope so” Iwaizumi replied.

Oikawa looked like he wanted to say something else, but he just smiled again and started to walk away, “Well, it’s been great, I’ll see you around, okay?”

“Okay... bye!” Iwaizumi waved as Oikawa rounded the corner.

Both of them were kicking themselves. They both wished they said something else, about meeting up, going on a date or just _seeing_ each other again, but they just parted without another word.

Oikawa wasn’t expecting a lift for another 10 minutes, so he sat on the wall just around the corner, he occasionally peaked round the wall to look at Iwaizumi who pulled out his phone and scrolled through his contacts.

Hanamaki soon picked up the phone after Iwaizumi heard three rings, “Oh? Date cut short?”

“It wasn’t a date” Iwaizumi hissed down the phone, “Can you come pick me up?”

“Sure” Hanamaki replied, “Now, what did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything!”

“Well something must’ve happened. Do you not like him anymore? What’s wrong with him?”

Iwaizumi rolled his eyes, “Can you get off my back” he grumbled, “Nothing happened”

“So you still like him?”

“I do. He’s, just... so interesting, I admire him so much and we had a lot of fun today, I had a really good time. Not to mention he’s really hot”

“Oh yeah” Hanamaki agreed. “You’re so into him!”

“Am not!”

“You’re so cute!”

“Shut up!”

“Iwa-chans in love! Iwa-chan’s in love!”

“Cut it out!” Iwaizumi shouted into the phone.

Hanamaki made kissing noises into the phone, and Iwaizumi cracked.

“He’s also really smug!” He blurted, without thinking twice.

“Oh? What’s wrong with him? Spill, come on, tell me everything”

Iwaizumi pinched the bridge of his nose. He hated it when he friends started interrogating him about things. It didn’t matter what it was, they’d find a way to make him talk. “I don’t know... I guess he seems a little proud, smug about quite a lot of things”

“And...?”

“Well, I guess he seems a little too into his looks, like he thinks he’s really attractive and stuff, and I mean yeah he is but I get the feeling he’s really vain about it”

“Ooh” Hanamaki drifted off, “Righty, my programme’s finished, I’m on my way”

“Okay” Iwaizumi hung up the phone, and immediately regretted saying those things about Oikawa. Sure, there were underlying senses of those things, but he didn’t need to voice them.

Hanamaki would arrive shortly, so Iwaizumi turned around and began to walk to the end of the pavement, only to be stopped by a horrifying sight. A sight which made his stomach twist and his chest tightened as he stared into eyes full of pain and sadness and disappointment, and downright disbelief and betrayal. He breathed slowly, “Oikawa.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments/kudos/bookmarks are always appreciated! Thanks for reading <3


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “If you really feel the same as me, like you say you do then how could you say all of those things?”

Oikawa was back at the observatory. He left as soon as Iwaizumi saw him, he just ran. Tears stinging and his stomach twisting painfully. How could he say those things? Oikawa didn’t understand, he thought they got on well, thought they were friends, but then after hearing that, well... where did he stand?

He was angry, there was sadness as well but mostly he was angry. Mad that Iwaizumi had said that stuff, mad that he was the reason he said them, mad that he let his feelings get in the way and made him feel like this.

He looked around the observatory, all his things neatly put out on the desks, which he organised the day before after he was done for the day. With a couple of sharp inhales, Oikawa threw his hands across one of the desks, sending papers flying and books tumbling to the floor with loud thuds.

Without enough energy to clear the second desk, Oikawa sank to the floor. Was he really vain? Was he really smug and proud? He didn’t think he was, but surely Iwaizumi wouldn’t just make that up if he didn’t believe it to be true.

“Is everything alright?”

Oikawa looked up, and standing in the door was the, if you could call her that, receptionist. “I’m okay, everything’s fine, thanks, Shimizu”

“Are you sure... all your-”

“I’m _fine_ ” Oikawa snapped.

Kiyoko jumped out of being interrupted, but nodded her head and backed out of the room.

Oikawa was sat on the floor, legs pulled tightly to his chest as he desperately tried not to cry. He’d gotten so attached to this guy in the space of 5 days, and he really, really liked him.

\---

As soon as Iwaizumi had gotten into Hanamaki’s car, he instructed him to go to the observatory. It wasn’t too far from the museum, and there was a way around so they could avoid the hill. When they got there, he opened the door before the car had stopped and he jumped out.

“Iwaizumi! Wait a minute”

“You stay here, I have to do something!” Iwaizumi shouted.

“Do what?!” Hanamaki shouted back. Iwaizumi had failed to tell Hanamaki what exactly happened, it was just told to drive, so he did. But it seemed Iwaizumi had something really important to take care of, and he wasn’t going to push him into telling him.

Iwaizumi burst through the hatch, and stared at the mess in the room, surrounding Oikawa on the floor. He didn’t look up at first, but Iwaizumi could see he was shaking, and he felt his heart sink.

When Oikawa did look up, his face was red and blotchy and tear-stained, and he just glared at him, “Look you’ve already made it pretty clear what you think of me so I don’t know why you’re back here, you’re week is over anyway”

“No!” Iwaizumi protested, “I... I don’t want it to be over. All that stuff I said was stupid, so fucking stupid and I shouldn’t have said it”

“Well you did” Oikawa said bluntly, not looking him in the eye, “And it hurt my feelings”

“I’m so sorry... I never meant to. I just said all of that because Hanamaki wouldn’t stop talking and I had to shut him up!” Iwaizumi said.

Oikawa breathed out, “What? You shut him up by telling him how ‘vain’ I am?” he smirked.

“That’s not how I meant it to sound” Iwaizumi replied, “I really messed up, I know... I just... I’ve really enjoyed his week and you’ve taught me some amazing things and... I think I’ve found my love for space again, thanks to you!”

“Are you trying to butter me up or something? Do you think I’m _that_ stupid?” Oikawa raised an accusing eyebrow. But sadness was still written all over his face.

“No!” Iwaizumi blurted, “I-uh... What I’m trying to say is you’ve helped me like space again, and you’ve made me see all of the incredible things about this universe. I’m thankful for that”

“Alright” Oikawa looked at him again, “Are you done?”

“Wha- No, I’m not...” Iwaizumi sighed, “I- I really like you. I like you a lot, and this is just so not how it was meant to go”

Oikawa didn’t say anything but slightly shake his head.

“I know that you feel the same, and I just wish I’d said something earlier”

Oikawa raised his voice, “If you really feel the same as me, like you say you do then how could you say all of those things?”

“Look, this wasn’t the way this was supposed to happen, I think we can both agree on that” Iwaizumi started, Oikawa looked away again, “But I’ve really enjoyed this week, and honestly it sucks that this was supposed to be our last day. I’d really like to see you again”

“I wanted to see you as well before I heard all those mean things you said about me”

“Oikawa I’m sorry!” Iwaizumi cried, “Do you want to know why I said those things? At the practice when I called you Trashy-kawa, it was because I was covering for when I called you Pretty-kawa and Matsukawa and Hanamaki heard”

Oikawa’s eyes moved back to the guy standing in front of him, wondering what else he had to say.

“Just now, I said all those things because Hanamaki was teasing me about really liking you, I told him how amazing I thought you were and he said things, and I just wanted to shut him up. I didn’t mean them, at all”

Oikawa sniffed, “...You think I’m pretty?”

Iwaizumi knelt down in front of Oikawa, “I think you’re _beautiful_ ” he said, “More than any star or Galaxy or Nebula”

“Ew” Oikawa tried to laugh, “Iwa-chan we’re not in a romantic comedy! But... thank-you”

“I’m sorry” Iwaizumi replied, “And I’m sorry about, well, everything”

Oikawa shook his head, “Don’t be. I’ve really enjoyed his week as well, and this was a shitty way to end it. I shouldn’t have run off like I did, it was my-”

“It wasn’t your fault” Iwaizumi cut him off, “Don’t say that”

Oikawa smiled, “Okay... So, what now?”

“Well...” Iwaizumi scratched the back of his head, “Seems as we both want to see each other again, and we’ve established that we both like each other, and you know that I didn’t mean any of that stuff I said before... how about I pick you up at 7?”

“Iwa-chan are you asking me out on a date?” Oikawa raised an eyebrow.

“I am” Iwaizumi replied calmly, “So what do you say?”

Oikawa was silent, before smiling like crazy, “Yes!”

After smiling at each other for a few seconds, Iwaizumi put a hand underneath Oikawa’s chin and tilted his face upwards. He leant in and gently pressed his lips against Oikawa’s, and left him with a small but sweet kiss as he pulled away.

They were quiet, but were startled when they heard a loud banging on the hatch, and Hanamaki burst in beaming, “You guys!” he said, a slight tear in his eye, “This is great!” he exclaimed, “Matsu owes me 20 bucks!”

**\---**

**Epilogue** _(1 year later)_

Iwaizumi was busy hanging up the decorations in his recently bought apartment when Oikawa burst through the doors, waving a piece of paper in the air as he glowed with excitement, “IWA-CHAN!” he sang.

Iwaizumi hung up the photo-frame he was holding and turned to face his boyfriend, who he now shared a cosy apartment with, “What’s up?”

“I got the job! I got the job!” Oikawa cheered, waving the paper vigorously in Iwaizumi’s face.

Iwaizumi smiled widely and hugged Oikawa, “That’s great! I knew you could do it, I’m so proud” he said, “Congratulations”

Oikawa jumped up and down a little, “This is all thanks to you! I’d never had decided to go for it if it wasn’t for you”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Iwaizumi replied, “you’re an incredible astronomer, and now you’ll be able to actually teach it”

“Still, thank-you” Oikawa said, letting himself be kissed on the top of his head, smiling to himself as he noticed Iwaizumi standing on his tip-toes to reach.

“So,” Iwaizumi said, “how about I take you out tonight for dinner?”

“That sounds lovely” Oikawa replied, moving away from Iwaizumi to put a couple of pillows on their new couch.

“I’ll go make the reservations” Iwaizumi said leaving the room.

His boyfriend smiled and called after him, “Make sure to book them under Iwaizumi and _Professor_ Oikawa!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments/kudos/bookmarks are always appreciated! Thanks for reading <3

**Author's Note:**

> I really hope you're enjoying it/have enjoyed it! Kudos/comments etc are always appreciated <3


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